Entities with substantial printing demands typically implement a high-speed production printer for volume printing (e.g., one hundred pages per minute or more). Production printers may include continuous-forms printers that print on a web of print media (or paper) stored on a large roll. A production printer typically includes a localized print controller that controls the overall operation of the printing system, and a print engine that includes one or more printhead assemblies, where each assembly includes a printhead controller and a printhead (or array of printheads). Each printhead contains many nozzles for the ejection of ink or any colorant suitable for printing on a medium. The ink in any one of the nozzles may be one of a plurality of types (e.g. dye, pigment, Cyan, Magenta, BlacK or Yellow)
The type of print medium implemented at the printing system effects print quality (e.g., optical density, color fidelity, rub off, smearing, etc.). Thus, it is often necessary to apply a paper setting to the printing system, which is used to select the calibration for the printing system prior to the production of a print job. The calibration for the printing system sets various printing system operational parameters to values that control the print quality of the production of the print job onto the print medium. The paper setting may include multiple (e.g., 3) settings that correspond to categories of paper.
Typically a paper setting is entered into the printing system by a system operator, who often selects the setting based on a personal judgement of the paper type. Such a selection method is susceptible to human error. Another method of categorizing paper type for the paper setting is to perform physical and chemical tests on the paper. However, this method is time consuming and requires extensive lab analysis.
Accordingly, a mechanism to classify a medium for print production is desired.